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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031022">Beat Saber</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceraxxxx/pseuds/ceraxxxx'>ceraxxxx</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Attempt at Humor, Beat saber, Gen, How Do I Tag, One-Shot, Self-Doubt, Technically based on the 2003 series but I guess it can work with the other ones as well, The boys are just having fun, very very minor angst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:33:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,182</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031022</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceraxxxx/pseuds/ceraxxxx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“...Ya gotta be kiddin’ me. Ya have been able to improve yer skills with a video game?”</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>“It’s not just any video game, it’s probably one of the best VR-games there is!”</i>
</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>
  <strike>This is probably the second most stupid fic I have ever written.</strike>
</p>
<p>Turtles have access to VR and <i>Beat Saber</i>. Some of them are better at it than others.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Beat Saber</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>A/N:</b> I don't usually write lighthearted fics like this, but I got this idea stuck in my head and I had to get it out. Let's just pretend for a while that either the show is set in 2010s or they somehow had access to modern VR-systems back then so this can happen, okay?</p>
<p>Also I should mention that I have personally only played Beat Saber on PS4, so if there are any differences between the different versions I don't really know about them and might have gotten some stuff wrong.</p>
<p>One more thing, thank you Jay for still reading through this and helping me write, I never even dared to hope that you would keep betaing for me after the first fic I wrote but here we are. Thank you, it means so so much to me. The quality is like 500% times better all because of you. You are amazing.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This isn’t working!” Leonardo yelled as the army of Foot ninjas approached the four turtles, who were currently losing the fight. “I don’t know how, but they are too aware of our fighting techniques and patterns. We need to change things up!”</p>
<p>“I hope that by ‘things’ ya mean the weapons,” Raphael gnarled as a response. “‘Cause I ain’t givin’ up this fight.”</p>
<p>“Oh! I call dibs on the katanas!” Michelangelo exclaimed with enthusiasm that really didn’t fit the situation. It took Leo aback just a little, but he didn’t really have time to stop and think about it.</p>
<p>“Uh, sure. Everyone, let’s just switch weapons with each other and get ready to attack!”</p>
<p>Leo himself ended up with Donatello’s bō. Definitely not his first choice, but it turned out that regular training with other weapons really paid off. The fight that they had been badly losing turned quickly around as the Foot ninjas lost their upper hand. Loud thuds filled the air as the bodies clad in black hit the ground.</p>
<p>Now that Leo had his full confidence in the fight back, his attention started to slip towards his brothers to see how they were doing. Don was now holding the sai, having to fight closer to the enemies than he was probably used to, but he was doing well. Same could be said about Raph, who hadn’t been too happy about having the nunchakus, but managed to get the most out of them anyway.</p>
<p>Mikey on the other hand…</p>
<p>Handing the katanas to Mikey wouldn’t have been Leo’s first choice. While none of his brothers were particularly bad with the swords, he had to admit that Raph had definitely been the best out of the three. Leo knew that Raph was aware of that as well, and even though he was good at hiding it, Raph was proud of that.</p>
<p>But Mikey was doing great. Excellent even. He was slashing the enemies left and right, handling the katanas with accuracy and confidence that definitely hadn’t been there before. He almost looked graceful.</p>
<p>Leo couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy in his chest. He had suspected that Mikey could surpass him in skills if the younger turtle just focused on his training, but for it to happen this soon? Leo wasn’t ready yet.</p>
<p>“Watch out!”</p>
<p>Don’s yell snapped Leo back to reality, and he stepped aside just in time to avoid the Foot ninja that flew across the air and landed heavily on the floor. Right. The battle wasn’t over yet. Leo jumped over the ninja that hadn’t gotten up from the ground, and continued to fight.</p>
<p>It took only a couple of more minutes until the Foot ninjas they had been fighting against were on the floor, either unconscious or groaning in pain.</p>
<p>At least most of them were.</p>
<p>Mikey was still having fun with the few remaining enemies.</p>
<p>That was the only way that Leo could describe what he was seeing. Mikey was having <em>fun</em> while fighting. He was moving his hands around dramatically and… was he really humming something?</p>
<p>What was going on?</p>
<p>By the time the last ninja finally hit the ground, the three turtles were just looking at their youngest brother, all in some kind of shock. Mikey seemed to be aware of this attention, and with a wide grin on his face he turned to look at his brothers and bowed to them.</p>
<p>“No need for applause guys, I know I’m awesome anyway,” he joked, and walked to Leo to hand him his katanas back.</p>
<p>“What the shell Mikey, when did ya learn to fight like that?” Raph questioned, tossing the nunchakus back to his brother.</p>
<p>“What do you mean? Did I manage to impress you, Raphie?” At this point Mikey’s voice had turned a little smug. He definitely knew that he had surprised the others with his skills.</p>
<p>“He’s not the only one,” Leo admitted, trying to look into Mikey’s eyes and get a serious answer out of him. “That was… Have you been training without us?”</p>
<p>“You could say that,” Mikey said, toying around with their attention. Don’s face morphed into confusion.</p>
<p>“But all you’ve been doing lately is just play video games! I even updated your VR-headset for you just a couple of weeks ago.”</p>
<p>“And why does that mean that I haven’t been training?”</p>
<p>They had started to head to the nearest sewer entrance, but now Raph stopped.</p>
<p>“...Ya gotta be kiddin’ me. Ya have been able to improve yer skills with a <em>video game</em>?”</p>
<p>“It’s not just <em>any</em> video game, it’s probably one of the best VR-games there is!”</p>
<p>Leo could feel his heart sink just a little bit. Mikey had improved his skills <em>this</em> much with a silly game? Had he made a mistake when he had decided to stick with the traditional training methods? Could he have improved his own skills faster if we had looked for alternatives?</p>
<p>But even through his sudden uncertainty, Leo felt extremely curious.</p>
<p>“And what is this game?” he asked, heading down the manhole first.</p>
<p>“It’s called <i>Beat Saber</i>,” Mikey said, following right behind Leo. “It’s basically a rhythm game but with lightsabers, you slash through boxes to the rhythm of a song.”</p>
<p>“Sounds stupid,” Raph muttered.</p>
<p>“And looks too,” Don added, closing the manhole before climbing down the ladder. “I’m assuming that’s the game you have been playing all the time lately, you looked like a windmill while playing.”</p>
<p>Michelangelo was so used to hearing such jokes that he just moved right past the light insult.</p>
<p>“That’s only because I’m so good at it I gotta play the more difficult levels that have more complicated moves! If you’d see it, you’d understand!”</p>
<p>“Could you show it to us then?” Leo heard himself ask before he really even realised it. Apparently he was very eager to learn more. The grin on Mikey’s face grew even more.</p>
<p>“As soon as we get back home.”</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>“I have actually <em>really</em> hoped that this would happen someday,” Mikey told the others excitedly while setting up the VR-system.</p>
<p>“Yeah well, I’m pretty sure ya are the only one,” Raph mumbled. He honestly couldn’t care any less about some stupid game, but he had to admit that this time it had peaked his interest.</p>
<p>Not that he would ever say it aloud.</p>
<p>The comment went unnoticed. Mikey was almost ready with the system, and Leo and Don were too curious to pay attention to their sulking brother.</p>
<p>“Okay, so!” Mikey said and pressed the power button. “Like I said, the main idea of the game is that it’s a rhythm game with laser swords. Honestly don’t know if there’s a more simple way to explain it. Just listen to the music and hit the blocks! Sit somewhere, I’ll show you guys how it actually works.”</p>
<p>Leo and Don obliged and sat down to the couch near the TVs, but Raph remained standing a bit further away.</p>
<p>Mikey pulled the headset over his eyes and turned his focus to the game. The empty environment of the hub expanded around him, and the youngest turtle felt like he could almost forget that this time he wasn’t just playing for his own amusement, but the fact that he tried to impress his brothers kept pulling him back to the room.</p>
<p>He selected the party mode and pretended to be choosing a song just long enough that the others would have plenty of time to notice that the high-score list next to the menu was filled with his name. Mikey didn’t want to brag too much and point it out himself after all.</p>
<p>It didn’t really matter what song he would play, so he selected one from the last category, which Mikey felt like had the most challenging songs.</p>
<p>“I play on ‘Expert+’ of course,” he mentioned offhandedly, “the other difficulties just feel too easy for me!”</p>
<p>Yeah, he definitely didn’t want to brag.</p>
<p>The song started, and Mikey stopped caring whether he was showing off or not. He was better than the others at this, he knew it, and he wasn’t afraid of letting them know it too. The blocks kept coming in at a high speed, and Mikey kept slicing them when they were close enough to him. Some blocks he missed like he had predicted, but the only damage they really did was on his pride. And in the end, he was happy to notice that he had really messed up only 38 times.</p>
<p>“See?” He turned to others after setting the new high-score and taking the headset off again. “Not that difficult! It’s fun, and I guess it helps with handling swords in real life as well.”</p>
<p>Leo felt slightly stunned. Mikey had moved with such ease and grace while playing, just like earlier on the battlefield. This really must be where the younger turtle had gained his new skills.</p>
<p>It was absolutely absurd.</p>
<p>“I want to try it”, Leo spoke again without realising. It seemed like he wasn’t the only one surprised by his eagerness to play, as his three brothers had all turned to look at him.</p>
<p>“Uh, sure! Come here dude, I’ll tell you what to do.”</p>
<p>Leo got up, and after a crash course on how the controllers worked, he was able to step into virtual reality for the first time in his life.</p>
<p>“Whoa.” Leo didn’t really know what he had been expecting. The view on the TV screen hadn’t given justice to how realistic the world inside the headset felt. He almost felt like he really was standing on a ledge in the middle of nowhere and not in the middle of their home.</p>
<p>“So what I’d suggest to you,” Mikey interrupted, not feeling patient enough to let Leo look around for too long, “is to select the first category, it says ‘OST 1’, yeah, that one, and just, select something! These are relatively easy, most should be finishable for a first-timer even on the ‘Normal’ difficulty.”</p>
<p>“Okay then…” Leo didn’t really listen to music that much, and because of that he didn’t have any strong preferences when it came to the songs. He ended up just choosing the song on the top of the list. The environment faded to black and changed into a different one, before the music started to blare from the stereos.</p>
<p>“Just hit the red blocks with your left hand, and the blue ones with your right,” Mikey tried to instruct. “The arrow- oh you got it. Yeah, keep doing that and you’ll beat it!”</p>
<p>For Leo’s surprise, he had no difficulties playing the game. In fact, he felt like there was hardly any challenge as he kept slashing the blocks heading his way. By the end of the song, he hadn’t missed even once.</p>
<p>“What does the SS mean?” the oldest turtle questioned, looking at his score. Mike blinked a couple of times.</p>
<p>“That you… uh… You did pretty well, you know, for a newbie. But this isn't your first time swinging swords, so maybe we should just turn up the difficulty. Try another song on 'Hard'."</p>
<p>"Sure…" Leo managed to enter his name on the screen and get himself back to the main menu before selecting the next song on the list, making sure he raised the difficulty before hitting play.</p>
<p>He passed with flying colours again.</p>
<p>"Oh hey, another SS!"</p>
<p>"...Beginners luck," Mikey tried to argue, but there was some clear tension in his voice.</p>
<p>"I dunno," Raph piped in, grinning, "I think he's doin' pretty good!"</p>
<p>"Leo could you look a bit more to your right?" Don asked. "Let’s check the scoreboard, I wonder how you did compared to Mike."</p>
<p>"Sure he's doing good", Mikey admitted, sounding even more nervous now, "but I don't think he's doing <em>that</em> good- Holy Silver Sentry, he made it to the first place."</p>
<p>“See? Told ya he was doin’ great!”</p>
<p>“It’s feeling pretty easy so far though,” Leo commented. “Maybe I should turn up the difficulty again.”</p>
<p>“<em>Or</em>, you could move on to the more difficult songs,” Michelangelo suggested. “Click on ‘Extras’.”</p>
<p>Leo did just that, but to make sure that it would really feel challenging, he also changed the difficulty to ‘Expert’.</p>
<p>“Your own funeral…” Mikey mumbled under his breath as the new song started, knowing that the change in difficulty would be much more noticeable than before.</p>
<p>But it seemed like he had judged too fast. Leo managed to hit the blocks in a way that made it seem incredibly easy and smooth, and by the end of the song, he had done just as well as with the previous songs. Highest rank possible, zero misses.</p>
<p>This was getting out of hand.</p>
<p>“Fine! One last challenge!” Mike announced. The others could hear the clear annoyance in his voice, but the turtle didn’t really care anymore, he was getting way too frustrated because of the situation. Leo was wrecking his high scores left and right! He had been so proud of his skills, the progress he had done, and Leo just came and made it all look like nothing. He wanted to be better at this one thing, impress the others with his sword wielding skills.</p>
<p>Was that really too much to ask?</p>
<p>Mikey moved closer to his eldest brother, so that he could grab his arm and make him point to a specific song, before continuing. “This. This is the hardest song that exists in the game. Even <em>I</em> haven’t got a good score on it yet on the highest difficulty.”</p>
<p>“And based on how he has been wreckin’ yer scores so far, ya think he ain’t gonna beat ya now as well?” Raph questioned, but Mikey decided to ignore him, and took a couple of steps back instead to be able to see both the TV screen and Leo properly. He dared to hope that this would finally make his brother fail. Mikey really wanted to keep at least some sort of feeling of accomplishment.</p>
<p>The song started. Leo moved faster than before, swinging his arms in a ridiculous manner to be able to hit all the boxes that were shifting and moving around him.</p>
<p>“Oh wow this <em>is</em> more difficult,” Leo was panting slightly now, but kept playing.</p>
<p>“Are you sure? There doesn’t seem to be any difference in your performance,” Don said, sounding amused.</p>
<p>He was right. Leonardo managed to get yet another perfect score.</p>
<p>“How… How?” Mikey muttered to himself, just staring at the score displayed on the screen. “My top scores… I worked so hard for them...”</p>
<p>“Well, this was surprisingly fun,” Leo admitted while taking the headset off, not hearing what his brother was saying, “but I think this is enough for now. I guess I can see how this could be a useful tool for training.”</p>
<p>Mike couldn’t answer. All the pride he had been feeling before was gone, wiped away in a matter of minutes. Sure, he had known that Leo was good with his katana, but to beat the levels with no struggle at all, while Mike himself had been playing for months to achieve scores that he had thought were amazing?</p>
<p>Did he really still have that far to go to get on Leo’s level?</p>
<p>Raph rolled his eyes.</p>
<p>“It can’t be <em>that</em> hard to get a decent score. Gimme that,” he said, taking the headset from Leo and placing it on his own face. “Just watch me.”</p>
<p>Raph started the same song that Leo had previously played, confident that he would be able to beat it without any problems. He was the second best when it came to the katanas after all.</p>
<p>He didn’t even last a whole minute.</p>
<p>“‘<i>It can’t be that hard</i>’,” Mikey imitated Raph’s voice, suddenly recovering from his previous disappointment after seeing Raph struggle even more than he used to when he started to play the game. “Did you even try?”</p>
<p>“Of course I did!” Raph snapped back at him, changing the difficulty to be a little bit easier. “I just have never played this before, ya gotta cut me some slack!”</p>
<p>He tried again. And when he failed again, he returned to the menu to change the difficulty. Again.</p>
<p>“I don’t get it!” Raph yelled after making too many mistakes again. “How can ya two beat these so easily?!”</p>
<p>“I guess we are just so much more talented than you,” Michelangelo said, attempting to sound innocent. Raphael tried to punch him in response, but since he wasn’t able to see his brother, Raph missed.</p>
<p>Don chuckled, stood up from the couch he had been sitting on for the last half an hour, and started heading towards his own computer.</p>
<p>“You don’t want to give it a try?” Leo asked him, but Don shook his head.</p>
<p>“I’m not really that interested. Besides, I have a feeling I wouldn’t be able to get a go in a while anyway.”</p>
<p>Raph was trying out yet another song, furiously waving his arms around, trying to hit the cubes. His frustrated growling was filling the air, and Mikey’s jeers were not helping.</p>
<p>“Just let me show you! Watch the master do it, maybe you’ll learn a thing or two!”</p>
<p>“I ain’t gonna treat ya like any kinda master, now lemme just play this, I’m gonna show ya ya ain’t anythin’ special with this!”</p>
<p>“Oh like you have done so far? Let me play already, I need to get my top scores back anyway!”</p>
<p>“NO! I’m gonna beat ya, show ya this game ain’t gonna replace real skill!”</p>
<p>“Good point,” Leo agreed with Don after listening to the other two bicker for a moment, but remained on the couch he had returned to. This was quite amusing to watch, especially now that he had restored his own pride when it came to his skills with katana. He had been doubting himself for no reason. Mikey, or anyone else in Leo’s family, wouldn’t be able to surpass him anytime soon. But he could just as well enjoy the show while the others tried.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>At 3AM Donatello finally turned off his computer, yawned, and headed towards his bedroom, in hopes to get some sleep before he would have to wake up just a couple of hours later. He had just gotten too carried away by his research. He was moving as quietly as possible because he assumed that the others were already asleep and didn’t want to wake them up.</p>
<p>That’s why he wasn’t expecting to see their TVs still light up the lair with flashing colors.</p>
<p>Confused, Donatello walked towards the light instead of his bed, and to his surprise, found Raphael still playing <i>Beat Saber</i>, headphones attached to the headset so that he wouldn’t disturb anyone with the loud music. Don almost went to tap his brother’s shoulder to get his attention, but then he heard him muttering quietly to himself.</p>
<p>“I’m gonna show ya… I’m better than ya… just wait ‘n’ see…”</p>
<p>Don sighed and shook his head. Of course.</p>
<p>He would just have to bear with these competitive idiots for a while.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><b>A/N:</b> <strike>Yes I know there probably isn't any actual correlation between being able to play <i>Beat Saber</i> and being able to handle swords in real life, but this is all just for fun.</strike></p>
<p>When I started writing this I could have <em>sworn</em> that there was an actual episode in the 2k3 series with a similar setting than what I used in the beginning here, and I would have loved to reference it, but I couldn't find it. No joke, I tried to look for it for <em>hours</em>, but found nothing. Like, in the beginning they are training at home (maybe with each others' weapons? Not sure), Splinter's there too, and later in the episode they are fighting against someone who knows exactly how they fight and the only way they can get out of it is to change weapons and improvise. So if someone could save my sanity and either tell me the episode where it happens or confirm that such episode doesn't exist, I would be grateful.</p>
<p>Anyway, thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate it! If you feel like leaving a comment or point out a mistake that both me and Jay missed (neither of us are native English speakers), please do!</p>
<p>I'm already working on my next fic, so if you are into more angsty stories, stay tuned, this one is based on everyone's favorite episode...</p></blockquote></div></div>
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